Laser range finders are an increasingly vital component in high precision targeting engagements. The precise and accurate range to target information is an essential variable for fire control of weapons. This information is easily, and timely, provided by laser range finders.
Unfortunately, known laser range finders are bulky, heavy and expensive. These laser range finders were not developed with the individual field use in mind.
Monoblock laser makes the development/fabrication of a very low cost, compact laser range finder feasible. Unfortunately, the beam divergence of known monoblock lasers is rather large (typically between 8 and 14 mRad). Such a laser has a fairly low brightness, wherein a sizable optic is needed to collimate the monoblock laser output.